Comments on: Are you a home brander?

By: Jess

Jess — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:41:35 +0000

I tried a few home brand products but all were substandard, but my main reason for not buying them is that most are cheap foreign imports and I prefer to support local producers whenever I can and I want to know who the manufacturer is, this is never listed on home/ store brands. Coles store brands do seem to include a significant amount of local produce but not Woolworths. I avoid supermarkets as much as possible better quality and often cheaper products can be easily sourced elsewhere eg fruit and veg, meat, bread, pet food and cleaning products.

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 23:01:50 +0000

It’s also called beef bacon. It’s not made from pork.

By: Katie

Katie — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 22:54:23 +0000

To be fair, the coles brand soups – like the campbell’s ones, taste. Amazing. In particular the chicken and sweetcorn and minestrone. omg.

By: Faybian

Faybian — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 22:48:48 +0000

Halal bacon??? Seriously? Why would there be halal bacon when pork is one of the big Islamic no nos? Now I’m just confused.

By: Erin

Erin — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 22:18:57 +0000

My only issue with articles like this is that you need to differentiate between home brand which is actually a brand, and coles or woolworths select brands – which I suppose can be classed as house brands. Home brand products have been in stores for years an have a distinguishable minimal packaging of white and red usually. And are usually cheaper again than the Coles and Woolworths select brands.

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:58:22 +0000

Yes! Why don’t people realise that the cheaper prices (which are often only marginally less than the non house brands) WILL NOT LAST. When there is no longer any competition the big 2 will be able to charge whatever they like. I’m also on a tight family budget but I am cutting out some things to try not to fall into the home brand trap wherever I can. And it isn’t just big multinationals like Cadburys that are losing shelf space. Bec-you were right-you need to do some more research on this. John Birmingham published a great article a few weeks ago about how suppliers are forced to bid for shelf space at Colesworths, meaning little companies get squeezed out. Bad for Australian jobs, bad for consumer choice, in the long run bad for grocery prices. I think Bec it would be better to do your research *before* you write an article like this. Thanks to Lana for what I feel was a better thought out counterpoint.

By: Katrina

Katrina — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:47:49 +0000

As a student living out of home with my fiancé (also a student), we are often on a tight budget and choose to buy homebrand bread, milk, pasta, tomato paste, flour, sugar etc because it fits out budget. I refuse to feel guilty because I notice that a lot of these products do say ‘product of australia’ or ‘made in Australia from local and imported ingredients’ which means at least some of it is being produced here, and creating jobs. A lot more of the companies we see such as Kraft are owned by overseas companies.

Of course I do buy foods from brands other than homebrand, I use the local butcher (cheaper!) and green grocer, but at the end of the day if home brand is the cheaper option I’m going to go for it, and I won’t be ashamed by that.

By: Lu

Lu — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:43:36 +0000

There was never as much choice as we thought with packaged goods. The may be branded differently but you will find just about everything is made by the same few companies anyway… goodman fielder ect. I think choice has always been an illusion especially in the big two supermarkets.

By: Laws for Clouds

Laws for Clouds — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:25:09 +0000

Actually Woolies brand has 6mg/100g, the lowest one I have found so far. I will keep looking for another brand though because I don’t usually shop at Woolies!

By: Laws for Clouds

Laws for Clouds — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:21:06 +0000

NZ has looser import laws, you could be right!